Laplink Everywhere 3.0

Provides access to your remote PCs, wireless handhelds, and everything in between. Less expensive than the leading Web-based remote control application, Citrix's GoToMyPC.

Cons
When used over low-bandwidth connections, it cannot provide full remote control, and it's only marginally useful if you're not running Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express. When used over broadband, providing full remote control, it's not nearly as adept as GoToMyPC.

Bottom Line

If you want full remote controlthe ability to navigate a remote machine's OS freelyyou're better off with GoToMyPC. But if you just want access to your most important data (e-mail, calendar, contacts, to-do lists, and all your files), Laplink is the way to goespecially if you use a handheld.

In 2001, a start-up called Expertcity introduced GoToMyPC, letting users access remote machines via ordinary Web browsers. GoToMyPC, now owned by Citrix, is still the best way to do full remote controlto be able to navigate your PC's entire operating system. But GoToMyPC doesn't work all that well unless it's running over a broadband Internet connection. If you need access to your PC over dial-up or via a wireless handheld, you'll want one of the newer Web-based tools, which typically offer a kind of low-bandwidth remote control. The most impressive of the lot is Laplink Everywhere 3.0.

Like Intellisync's goAnywhere and 01 Communique's I'm InTouch, among others, Laplink Everywhere can access certain important parts of your PCincluding your e-mail inbox, your calendar, and your file treewithout establishing a full remote-control connection. Once you install the Laplink Everywhere 3.0 client on your host PC, you can access that machine from any standard browser on the Internet. When logging on through the Laplink Web site, you get a menu of seven system links: Notes, Contacts, Mail, Tasks, Calendar, Files, and PC Desktop. The first six are HTML-based and can be used from almost any Web-enabled device, including PDAs, cell phones, and PCs whose browsers do not support Java. The Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Notes, and Tasks links tie into the host system's Outlook client, letting you do everything from sending and receiving e-mail to checking your latest to-do list, and the Files tool provides access to the system's file tree, letting you upload and download documents.

The last link, PC Desktop, provides full remote control, à la GoToMyPC. Unlike the other links, it requires a Java-enabled browser and broadband connection. You'll have to download an extra bit of software on your host system to use this tool. Although it's not nearly as fast or as slick as GoToMyPC, it's nice to have on hand for emergencies.

The 3.0 release adds a few new perks to this arrangement and spruces up the interface a bit. You can now schedule and accept events in your calendar. You can receive alerts when new mail hits your inbox or when one of your calendar events is imminent. And it's much easier to look through your Outlook data. You can sort e-mail by subject, date, recipient, or sender and view your calendar by day, week, or work week. Laplink will also offer a sister tool, Laplink Companion (now in a public beta), that will let you actually download e-mail and other Outlook data onto your Palm or PocketPC device, for off-line viewing.

During testing at PC Magazine Labs, we initially had trouble installing the new version of Laplink Everywhere and had to contact the company (through its convenient, free technical support chat client). We soon discovered that if you're already using Version 2.0 of Laplink Everywhereor have used it in the pastVersion 3.0 may have trouble getting up and running. Once the problem was diagnosed by the support technician, we had it fixed in a few minutes.

The only significant problem with the application is that it doesn't work with any e-mail client or PIM other than Outlook or OEbut that's the case with all its competitors as well. Unless you're dead set on doing full remote control, you'll be more than pleased with Laplink Everywhere. And if you are dead set on doing full remote control, give the free 30-day trial of Laplink a try; you may find it's all you need.

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